280°

Why is Hideo Kojima so important?

Hideo Kojima is a designer that has pushed boundaries, provided us with new genres and creates games under the mantra that it is possible to bring the impossible to players.

In this episode of Gaming: The Podcast Indie By Design talk about his impact on the video game medium, the importance of strong themes in his writing and direction and how it is that he has come to be such an important and unique voice.

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indiebydesign.net
Sonic-and-Crash1604d ago (Edited 1604d ago )

the last of the old gen developers ...and one of the true educated and intelligent men in gaming industry .... few can compare with him ..

XbladeTeddy1604d ago

Not the last at all. Insomniac, Rockstar, Naughty Dog and iD Software to name a few are still around and developing.

iamironman1604d ago

i don't think they compare in the same way. they are companies and no individuals and their games are not as original as Kojima - apart from early Rockstart and iD.

XabiDaChosenOne1604d ago

Rockstar and Naughty Dog have little to none of the primary minds that made those companies what they are today. I dont believe you understood the original comment.

Sonic-and-Crash1604d ago (Edited 1604d ago )

@Xblade these are companies not indviduals creators there is a difference...Shinji Mikami (Resident) Miyamoto (Mario), Miyazaki (Soulsborne Sekiro) Andy Gavin (Crash bandicoot) these are people who can be named creators (and stand beside Kojima )

RgR1604d ago

Well hes speaking of individuals....

but even as a company ID Software has done great recently but others can easily match them.
ND's last 2 full games have disappointed many. Top notch though....just dont think theyll last much longer. The greatest minds arent in charge anymore.
Rockstar is pure open world and its true that rdr2 was spectacular but others can follow suit.

Insomniac however are particularly unique

XbladeTeddy1603d ago

I stand by my statement, I did understand the original comment. Those developers have people with creative minds just like Hideo or else how would they make such incredible games? Difference is Hideo owns his own company these other creative people are just working for someone so you don't hear about them as individuals.

eddieistheillest1603d ago

@xblade .... you still don’t get it.

Kilua1603d ago (Edited 1603d ago )

@RgR
"ND's last 2 full games have disappointed many. Top notch though....just dont think theyll last much longer. The greatest minds arent in charge anymore."

ooooooo boy dropping some truth bombs on us here! Yea yea, we get it, Naughty Dog and Sony are doomed, DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED i tElLs yA. And just like that, they wont last much longer because you said so. You know how things work, clearly. You have the scoop. Dat detailed knowledge.

Rocketisleague1603d ago (Edited 1603d ago )

Kilua, just be sure ND are starting to miss the mark doesn't mean Sony are going downwards, they're just 1 dev. The lost their best creative minds. So what, There's plenty talent on the Sony camp. So long as MS don't keep buying up publishers Sony will be fine.

One negative comments about your soul company gets you this defensive? Jesus what are you American?

+ Show (5) more repliesLast reply 1603d ago
RememberThe3571604d ago

This industry is full of incredibly capable creative minds. Don't blame developers for what the money men do. I swear every time I read one of your comments your on some dumb sht.

iamironman1604d ago

invents new kinds of games and only releases top quality games. incredible designer.

RememberThe3571604d ago (Edited 1604d ago )

Truth. And the risk he took with Death Stranding was extraordinary. I was a little sad to see he caught some blow back from Sony, I hope that story was over blown.

neutralgamer19921604d ago

Sony took all the risk no other publisher was willing to give him a clean slate

calderra1603d ago

Death Stranding was not even the first Strand type game. See matthewmatosis' review for a breakdown.

TLDR lots of other games did similar concepts before. One example of doing exploration for social/community goals was Noby Noby Boy from 2009.

Kabaneri1604d ago (Edited 1604d ago )

Most overrated guy in the games industry. Nonsense pretentious storylines that are weird for the sake of being weird. A narcissist who plasters his name all over the credits in every game.

VerminSC1604d ago

MGS V was my first Kojima game and I agree the story was an absolute mess.
Then I played death stranding, and at first it seemed like it was going to a fantastic story but it ended up being a convoluted mess with terrible dialog as well.

I won’t comment on gameplay, but as far as stories go, I’m not at all impressed.

Sephiroushin1604d ago

MGS V was my first Kojima game and I agree the story was an absolute mess.

Ah you started with the game were he was not telling much of a story and making gameplay longer so people would stop bitching and with the game at the time Konami was an asshole...make sense ... Also the story is not a mess people who cant understand it are newcomers that dont read and people that like to have an answer for everything with 0 interpretation...

ANIALATOR1361604d ago

MGSV was awful and Death Stranding wasn't much better. MGS1-3 is where his best work is in my opinion

JEECE1604d ago

"MGS V was my first Kojima game" is one of the best self-owns I've seen on this site.

VerminSC1604d ago

Sephiroushin

“People who can’t understand it are newcomers who can’t read”

That’s some major assumptions there. I actually use to be a literary major and I typically read over a dozen books a year. I’m perfectly comfortable with interpretation and how a story should be told.

Also don’t you think just because you are new to a franchise you should have some understanding of the story. Take god of war for example, I didn’t play the games on ps3 yet had a firm grasp of the narrative.

VerminSC1604d ago

JEECE

Have you considered that someone new to the series doesn’t have rose tinted glasses on like you might?

You’ve grown up with kojima games so you’ll tend to be a bit biased. I went in with an open mind and no pre conceived notions and still thought it was terrible.

JEECE1604d ago

@VerminSC

You are missing the point. This is a thread about why Kojima is important, and you explicitly declared that you aren't impressed with him only after playing what are probably his least-beloved games. It's well understood particularly with MGSV that the circumstances of his relationship with Konami negatively impacted that game.

Put differently, when someone asks "Why is Paul Mccartney so important?", you wouldn't go listen to something he wrote in the last 20 years and say "I'm not impressed," at least not if you wanted to your opinion to be taken seriously. You'd go listen to Rubber Soul.

Or if someone asked why Michael Jordan is so revered in basketball, you wouldn't look at his late career stint with the Warriors and say "he wasn't that great really." You'd look at what he accomplished with the Bulls. (Again, assuming you didn't want to come off as super uninformed).

The same applies here. Kojima's name isn't prominent because of MGSV, it's prominent because of 1-3.

RememberThe3571604d ago

This thread is on some ignorant sht. Next we're gonna hear Tolstoy couldn't write and Walter Payton was bad at football. GTFO.

MGS4 is a God damn masterpiece. Fight me.

MadLad1604d ago

@seph

Nah.
I'll never take away the man's success. Obviously people enjoyed his work; especially the MGS series.
But he's highly pretentious.
His stories are pulled out of his ass. Half of MGS 4 was cutscene. Sometimes not even driving the story forward in any meaningful way.
And I don't care who ended up enjoying Death Stranding. I found both the gameplay, and the writing, to be straight up idiotic. People praised it and then basically forgot about it not long after.

JEECE1604d ago

@JEECE

Saying that Michael Jordan played for the Warriors is also one of the best self-owns I've seen on this site, especially in a comment criticizing other people for being uninformed.

(obviously I meant the Wizards, I just had the Warriors on the mind from an article I was reading earlier and so that's what I typed)

Junkstein1603d ago

all the MGS games are connected on a micro level, it's not fair shitting on the designer because the fifth installment of his franchise was your FIRST GAME.

eddieistheillest1603d ago

Stfu and play MGS1-4. 5 wasn’t even finished and we all know that.

+ Show (8) more repliesLast reply 1603d ago
Agent751604d ago

Totally agree. His last game was tosh and apparently was a sales flop.

JEECE1604d ago

Imagine thinking that Kojima is a prominent Industry name because of Death Stranding and not because of Metal Gear Solid. Why is everyone ten years old?

RememberThe3571604d ago (Edited 1604d ago )

Jeece, I went away for like 3 weeks only to return to a God damn preschool. WTF is going on around here? I'm hot

Sephiroushin1604d ago

tbh i didnt liked DS and MGSV as much as i liked his other MGS (specially mgs3) but the guy try to do different stuff and keep the games fresh plus his games run so damn good and smooth even on PC theyre optimized, they arent a bug fest like so many "awesome" games lately...

To the guy up yea every mgs has lot cutscenes and lmao the cutscenes always drived the story forward maybe you was asleep or something, like even the "joke" cutscenes drived the story on ...

@Jeece well we are reaching a point where many of todays "gamers" on forum etc started with cod and still on cod so yea...

Junkstein1603d ago

wasn't a flop it covered the development costs, stop spreading misinformation

calderra1603d ago

MGS's story is awful and a lot of people have heavy nostalgia because it was one of the first games they ever played that tried to be cinematic. Kojima's dialog is like 99% recycled Hollywood action movie cliches.

Luckily, teenagers exist.
Teenagers?
Yes, people between the ages of thirteen and seventeen.
Seventeen, huh? That's less than 18.
That's right. In Viet Nam teenagers went to war, but now they're playing videogames...
(Literally anyone can write a Kojima scene if they've watched any war movies.)

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 1603d ago
goldwyncq1604d ago

MGS3 was his last truly great game. Everything after that, while not bad, just don't measure up to his earlier works.

DuckOnQuack351603d ago

This right here. I can't believe people think mgs4 was this huge master piece. It was the first game in the series that I hated playing, I couldn't wait for it to end

Kilua1603d ago

Metal gear solid 4 was brilliant as well.... so there's that

masterfox1604d ago

Because his games are awesome, stunning looking, and is not afraid of thinking outside the box, always keep moving forward in creating original experiences, and evolving current stablished game genre.

ManMarmalade1604d ago

Basically this. Kojima is great at keeping games freah and interesting, even if Death Stranding was a bit polarized for reviews. He's good at what he does and keeps delivering his visions.

TheProfessional1604d ago (Edited 1604d ago )

You mean self-important. Even by metal gear 4 the story was starting to get shakey and 5 was garbage except for the gameplay. Stranding had many, many gameplay flaws and the story was absolute nonsense. I do love Metal gear 1 and 3 though, those truly are fantastic. But he hasn't been able to match or exceed either of those games ever since.

Shane Kim1604d ago

4 was really good imo. But yeah, 1-3 are the best.

Sephiroushin1604d ago

Thats kind off like captain obvious, because on MGSV focus was gameplay not story, he mentioned it on interviews a bazillion times, so people would stop bitching mgs was all cutscene then mgsv released and everybody and their mother bitched that it didn't had cutscenes and story was lacking, that there were too many tapes to listen to etc...

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70°

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 devs praise games like Space Marine 2 for "lowering the barrier"

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 developers discuss the huge success of Space Marine 2 and its effect on the series as a whole.

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videogamer.com
Jingsing20h ago

How about an official level editor for Boltgun?

220°

Phil Spencer Teases 2026 As A "Really Special Year" For Xbox

2026 will mark the 25th anniversary of Xbox, and Phil Spencer has teased it as a "really special year" for the games division.

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twistedvoxel.com
TheEroica1d 12h ago (Edited 1d 12h ago )

You got downvotes by pathetic gamers for feeling hopeful about good games coming out next year. Imagine how small your brain must be to downvote someone excited for future gaming joy? It is pretty neat to see people's world view blow up in front of them as they realize Microsoft has put themselves in a driver's seat that Sony hasn't been able to touch all generation.... What's even more pathetic is the same people downvoting you are the same people wishlisting Microsoft games on their ps5s 😂

P_Bomb1d 9h ago

“Imagine how small your brain must be to downvote someone excited for future gaming joy?”

My dude your post history shits on EVERYTHING. You never have a good thing to say about anything lol! 🤣

PanicMechanic1d ago (Edited 1d ago )

“Getting ready for those GaaS reveals! Sony is a shadow of themselves this gen.”

You literally said this a couple of days ago. Start applying the clown make up, you hypocritical jester

derek1d 9h ago

Yep we'll see, they have alot releasing next year.

RaidenBlack1d 6h ago

NGL, next year might be one of the best years in gaming ... starting off with RE9 and GTA VI ...
and then all the good games that's been cooking
Pragmata, Sands of Time, Saros, Gears E-Day, 007 First Light, Blood of Dawnwalker,
Mortal Shell II, Onimusha, Marvel1943: Rise of Hydra
current-gen only Infinity Ward's CoD, Duskbloods
+ My guess: Wolverine, Exodus, Mudang, Crimson Desert, Clockwork etc ...
~ seems like it might get too stacked

1Victor1d 4h ago

@rokos:”Hopefully “
I downvoted you not for been hopeful but because I have seen the same “NEXT YEAR WILL BE SPECIAL “ comment for the last 10+ and hasn’t seen anything special from Microsoft.
I hope next year will be the one that everyone been waiting for since the last 3 years of the Xbox 360, it have to be after over $80 billions spent on acquisitions.

Lightning771d 4h ago

So the new excuse is they don't count because it's from the ABK now huh. I guess all those 3rd party games count even less because they don't own them. According to your always crappy logic.

InUrFoxHole19h ago

Lol. You haven't seen anything special? Do you even game?

OtterX1d 15h ago

Always with the "next year..."! 😂

neutralgamer19921d 14h ago

I don't know they have delivered this year and even last year. And they have a lot more content in the pipeline right now than anyone else. We can't just keep hating on MS

Indiana Jones
South of midnight
Avowed
Flight simulator
Hell Blade 2
Minecraft update
Gears of war reloaded
Indian Jones:expansion
Gears E day
Clockwork revolution
Fable
Doom the dark ages
The outer worlds 2
Grounded 2
Call of duty

OtterX1d 14h ago

How many of those titles were just buyouts of companies that were going about making their games anyways? *Throws cash - "Oh look what we made!"

dveio1d 14h ago (Edited 1d 14h ago )

This list, that's been posted again, and again, and again in every single topic like this, contains almost nothing, literally almost nothing from Microsoft's own creational thoughtprocess.

It's a bunch of former 3rd party IPs.

Now even slowly returning to Playstation in some cases like Indiana, Hellblade, probably Starfield soon too, after they were made exclusively to Xbox on purpose.

Due to Microsoft's lack for own IP material except Halo & Forza. Which, the lack of, was the sole reason for all of it to happen in the first place anyway. Please don't pretend it wasn't.

And just look at all the games that come from Obsidian alone.

You really think Obsidian wasn't already working on Avowed and South of Midnight even without Microsoft buying Zenimax?

Microsoft delivered nothing but cheques.

OtterX1d 14h ago (Edited 1d 14h ago )

@dveio THIS. Lol, this dude thinks Call of Duty wouldn't exist without Microsoft! smh 😂

neutralgamer19921d 13h ago (Edited 1d 13h ago )

Common narrative I see often — that Microsoft shouldn’t get credit for the games its studios release because they “just bought them.” But this viewpoint ignores key context and sets a double standard that other platform holders aren’t held to

No one is saying these games wouldn't exist at all without Microsoft. But let’s not pretend that having a trillion-dollar company backing a studio doesn’t make a massive difference. Obsidian never had AAA funding before the Xbox acquisition. Pillars of Eternity was crowdfunded, and their resources were always stretched thin. Now they’re working on Avowed, with proper support behind it.

Ninja Theory’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice was made by around 20 people, using borrowed equipment and doing mocap in a boardroom. It was a passion project held together by tape and willpower. Today, Hellblade II exists because they were given resources, time, and freedom — something many developers don’t get unless they’re owned by a company that believes in their vision.

ZeniMax (Bethesda’s parent company) was in real financial trouble before the Microsoft acquisition. Reports and insider accounts have pointed out how much they needed a cash infusion. And while some people want to write off Xbox’s ownership of Bethesda titles, they forget the alternative could have meant layoffs or even closures.

The same goes for Activision Blizzard. Would you really prefer the company to stay under Bobby Kotick, after all the documented workplace misconduct and toxic leadership issues? Say what you want about Microsoft, but their acquisition brought accountability and change to a company that desperately needed it.

At the same time, Xbox gets hated on for doing what every major company does. Sony bought Housemarque, Bluepoint, Insomniac — but no one says Spider-Man 2 “doesn’t count” because of that. Why does Xbox get treated differently for acquiring struggling or undervalued developers and giving them a chance to thrive?

And the idea that Xbox locks games away is outdated. They're pushing cross-platform releases, cloud gaming, Game Pass, and backward compatibility more than any other platform holder. They're not forcing all studios into live service. If anything, their upcoming lineup is less GAAS-heavy and more focused on narrative and creativity — Avowed, South of Midnight, Clockwork Revolution, Fable, Perfect Dark, Towerborne, and others show real variety.

Whether people like it or not, Xbox is now the biggest publisher in the industry and owns the most gaming IPs. But what matters more is how they treat their studios. Most of these teams were previously stuck making AA games with limited scope — now they’re getting the tools and support to aim higher.

So when people say “Microsoft didn’t make those games,” they’re missing the point. It’s not about who started the studio — it’s about who enabled them to do their best work. You don’t have to love Xbox to admit they’ve helped a lot of developers and are taking a player-first approach.

Instead of writing off everything they do, maybe try recognizing the good they’re doing for both devs and gamers. At the end of the day, we should want more studios to succeed — no matter who owns them

BeHunted1d 13h ago

I'm surprised Clockwork Revolution (BioShock meets Dishonored) isn't getting more media attention. The game looks interesting and reminds me of the old RPG games.

anast1d 12h ago

The only good game on that list is Flight sim. The rest are either average or will be average. It's not a good look for MS.

TheEroica1d 12h ago

My god.... Look how many comments are upset about microsoft's successes... 😂 This may be my new favorite thread. Not one gamer saying thanks for all the goodness coming their way, just bitter anger and downvoting the very games they themselves will purchase throughout 2026.... Sony really worked you guys over this generation.... Condolences.

DivineHand1251d 11h ago

@neutralgamer1992 You said what needed to be said.

I have heard for years from older gamers that fanboys are the biggest issue with any fanbase. They will defend or gloss over negative news as long as the correct logo is on the box and they bash the competing platform no matter how much good they are trying to bring.

Right now their advocacy for PlayStation is elevating that platform so high that Sony no longer believes they need to do anything to satisfy their loyal fanbase like they did in the PS4 days.

I just hope most of them will eventually start advocating for themselves and encourage others to do the same. No one should blindly support one platform because these companies do not care about anything other than profit.

neutralgamer19921d 11h ago

Hunted

And first proper game done by the studio with proper AAA budget and saying it will be released when ready

Anast

I believe we went through this before that you are objectively wrong. Meta critic, user reviews, game sales. In Playstation top 10 best selling games were 5 from Microsoft studios

Otter

No this dude is saying so many other studios wouldn't be thriving without MS money and people would be getting abused physically and mentally with Bobby kotick and his side kicks

Also maybe look up how the original founder of Bethesda and zenimax was kicked out of his own company by his best friend lawyer. So that was always a shady place and had been struggling financially before MS paid a premium of almost 7 billion

Eroica

I use to be a die hard Playstation fan and now I only have a Pc. I see how these fans are so toxic. They just can't handle any positive news regarding Xbox. When the best selling games on playstation are Xbox titles. Look at Forza horizon being best seller and that's years old game by MS. I guess ms don't deserve credit for that success too since they are the only company in gaming making acquisitions

Forget the fact Sony paid 3.6 billion for bungie and MS 6.9 for zenimax. Which investment has turned out better

Destiny and marathon with a lot of controversy

While zenimax output is nothing short of amazing compared to what bungie has released

crazyCoconuts1d 10h ago

Yeah it's tricky. "Xbox" has morphed to mean different things to different people.
Console, now Windows, GamePass, and the cross platform games. There's a mix of attitudes towards all those things individually, and maybe an overarching attitude towards MS. But can't argue that the game companies MS recently bought continue to flourish, and GamePass PC has been a great value over the last year.

InUrFoxHole19h ago

@OtterX
You're the dude mad at your exes new guy. She's with someone else... get over it.

+ Show (8) more repliesLast reply 19h ago
Lightning771d 11h ago (Edited 1d 11h ago )

They've had good output so far. So waiting for those games shouldn't be a problem.

Who cares if they're buy outs of companies or whatever excuse you want to make. They're games that are being distributed to other console. Play the games and enjoy it instead of fanboying or complaining.

ocelot071d 13h ago

They going to be a he best and biggest publisher on Xbox, Playstation and PC next year. They not really said anything about Switch 2 though spite claiming to be big supporters.

quenomamen1d 13h ago

If you call making one last Xbox before going full Sega, as Great. Then yea.

TheEroica1d 11h ago

Doesn't feel like you're paying attention to what's happening.

RhinoGamer881d 12h ago

It will be, his net work will hit 50 million and he plans to buy a new mansion in Cape Cod. Thanks everyone! #failup

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80°

The Witcher 3 Immerse Gamepack — Product Introduction with Marcin Przybyłowicz

Join Marcin Przybyłowicz, Expert Composer at CD PROJEKT RED and the mind behind The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt OST, as he sets up Immerse Gamepack on PC and dives into Geralt's adventures like never before — with spatial audio powered by Embody.

3d ago